Congress grants 2-month reprieve to highway programs

The Senate approved another short-term extension to continue funding highway, bridge and transit projects.    The Senate on Friday passed a two-month extension of legislation authorizing the Highway Trust Fund to continue supporting highway and transit projects. The short-term fix, which runs through the end of July, was approved by the House earlier in the week and now goes to the White House to be signed.
   The Highway Trust Fund is nearing insolvency again. There is enough money to reimburse states for the federal share of transportation infrastructure projects through July, but the legislation doesn’t include any new revenue to restore the HTF balance to sustainable levels into the future.
   Federal motor fuels taxes, the primary funding source for HTF, haven’t been raised in 22 years. The HTF is pulling in less money from gas taxes as people drive more fuel-efficient vehicles and has lost almost 40 percent of its purchasing power due to inflation, yet the list of highway and bridge repairs, as well as needed expansion capacity, at the state level continues to grow.
   Lawmakers punted on a multi-year surface transportation bill because there is no consensus on how to raise additional revenue. The Department of Transportation is currently operating under another stop-gap spending measure enacted last August, which expires on May 31. That patch became necessary after the two-year MAP-21 bill expired last summer and follows a pattern of short-term extensions since 2009, during which time Congress has supplemented the HTF with $63 billion from the Treasury.
   “We are disappointed and frustrated,” Bud Wright, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, said in a statement. “This two-month extension is a reflection of the inability of Congress to fund a long-term surface transportation bill, which has caused uncertainty among our members. State DOTs are already postponing construction projects this year because they can’t count on federal funds to be there.
   “Millions of dollars that should be flowing into communities, creating jobs and paying for projects to improve safety and mobility aren’t being funded,” added Wright. “Congress must find the political will to pass a long-term bill and put these short-term patches aside.”